and it is well managed for her, Goodwood may be won before the season is over," concluded Lady Marabout, determinedly deaf to the quotation.

Carruthers, not feeling much interest, it is presumed, in the exclusively feminine pursuit of match-making, returned no answer, but played with Bijou's silver bells, till that pet rang out a "delicate tintinabulation," as they phrase it in that dreadful poem of "Bells, bells, bells," which was read out to me one day by a Cantab poet-bitten, till I could have pitched him with cordial épanchement from the pinnacle of King's; that sort of man, off on that sort of hobby, stops no more for the physical torture he inflicts than an express that dashes over a prostrate victim lying helpless on the lines.

"I am quite positive it may be, if properly managed," reiterated Lady Marabout." You might second me a little, Philip."

"I turn match-maker? Good Heavens! my dear mother, what are you thinking of? I would sooner turn torreador, and throw lassos over bulls at Madrid, than help you to fling nuptial cables over poor devils in Belgravia. Twenty to one! I must go. I'm going to the Yard to look at a bay filly of Cope Fielden's, and then on to a mess-luncheon of the Bays."

"Must you go?" said his mother, looking lovingly on him. "You look tired, Philip. Don't you feel well?"

"Perfectly, thank you; but Cambridge had us out over those confounded Wormwood Scrubs this morning, and three hours in this June sun, in our harness, makes one swear. If it were a sharp brush, it would put life into one; as it is, it only inspires one with an intense suffering from boredom, and an intense desire for hock and seltzer."

"I am very glad you haven't a sharp brush, as you call it, for all that," said Lady Marabout. "It might be very pleasant to you, Philip, but it wouldn't be quite so much so to me. I wish you would stay to luncheon."

"Not to-day, thank you; I have so many engagements."

"You have been very good in coming to see me this season-even better than usual. It is very good of you, with all your amusements and distractions," said Lady Marabout, gratefully. "Anne Hautton sees nothing of Hautton, she says, except at a distance in Pall-Mall or the Park, all the season through. Fancy if I saw no more of you! Do you know, Philip, I am almost reconciled to your never marrying. I have never seen anybody I should like at all for you, unless you had chosen Cecil Ormsby-Cecil Cheveley I mean; and I am sure I should be very jealous of your wife if you had one. I couldn't help it!"

"Rest tranquil, my dear mother; you will never be put to the test!" said Carruthers, with a laugh, as he bid her good morning.

66

Perhaps it is best he shouldn't marry: I begin to think so," mused Lady Marabout, as the door closed on him. "I used to wish it very much for some things. He is the last of his name, and it seems a pity; but still marriage is such a lottery (he is right enough there, though I don't admit it to him: it's a tombola where there is one prize to a million of blanks; one can't help seeing that, though, on principle, I never allow it to him or any of his men), and if Philip had any woman who didn't appreciate him, or didn't understand him, or didn't make him

happy, how wretched I should be! I have often pictured Philip's wife to myself, I have often idealised the sort of woman I should like to see him marry, but it's very improbable I shall ever meet my ideal realised; one never does! And, after all, whenever I have fancied, years ago, he might be falling in love, I have always felt a horrible dread lest she shouldn't be worthy of him-a jealous fear of her that I could not conquer. It's much better as it is; there is no woman good enough for him."

With which compliment to Carruthers at her sex's expense Lady Marabout returned to weaving her pet projected toils for the ensnaring of Goodwood, for whom also, if asked, I dare say the Duchess of Doncaster would have averred on her part, looking through her maternal Claude glasses, no woman was good enough either. When ladies have daughters to marry, our sex always presents to their imaginations a battalion of worthless, decalogue-smashing, utterly unreliable individuals, amongst whom there is not one fit to be trusted or fit to be chosen ; but when their sons are the candidates for the holy bond, they view their own sex through the same foggy and non-embellishing medium, which, if it does not speak very much for their unprejudiced discernment, at least speaks to the oft-disputed fact of the equality of merit in the sexes, and would make it appear that, in vulgar parlance, there must be six of the one and half a dozen of the other.

THE DISCOUNT RATE OF THE BANK OF FRANCE.

AFTER rather a quiet summer, the Paris Bourse began to rise slowly and with an appearance of steadiness during the month of September. There were no external signs of monetary difficulty; politics were quiet; trade was generally rather better than it had been for the preceding two or three years; money was neither scarce nor plentiful; the discount rate of the Bank of France was 5 per cent.; the difficulties of the Treasury were forgotten; and the only question on which immediate trouble might be feared-the shortness of the corn crop-was not regarded with alarm.

Towards the 24th of September, however, rumours got about that the stock of bullion in the Bank was rapidly diminishing, and that money was going abroad in large quantities to pay for corn; but though the latter outlay appeared to be producing itself at a much earlier date than on previous occasions of dearth, no immediate rise of discount was anticipated.

Suddenly, on the 26th of September, the Bank raised the rate to 5 per cent., and on the 1st of October to 6 per cent.; at the same moment the charge for advances on ingots, or coin, was carried from 1 to 3 per cent., and some 800,000l. of the Bank's reserved stock of Rentes were sent to the Bourse and mortgaged for the September settlement.

These vigorous measures revealed the existence of circumstances which nobody suspected, for the preceding balance-sheet of the Bank, published on the 12th of September, had shown 15,432,000l. in cash, which was only 360,000l. less than in August: it had not, therefore, caused any apprehension of difficulties.

A panic ensued. The Rente fell 14 per cent., and all other securities were proportionately affected. It was suddenly discovered that there was a crisis; the public did not quite know how or why; but the fact was received as true, solely because the Bank had raised its rate 1 per cent. in five days.

After the first movement of surprise people began to look round them, and to ask what was the cause of this sudden pressure.

The examination of the situation of the various branches of commerce did not explain it, for they were all in a tolerably satisfactory state. The movement of foreign and coasting navigation was rising, for the number of vessels cleared in and out during the first nine months of this year was 34,792, of a total measurement of 5,412,054 tons against 32,114 ships of 5,125,703 tons during the corresponding period of 1860. Railway receipts went up from 12,500,000l. in the first ten months of 1860 to 13,967,000l. in the same interval of 1861; constituting an augmentation of 11 per cent., while the extra length opened since 1860 was under 1 per cent. The coal-trade, as always, was successful and thriving. The iron-trade was in a better position than it had occupied for years past, for all the large works have orders, which, though at scarcely remunerative prices, will keep them fully going for two or three years. Textile manufactures were in a fairly healthy state; orders were increasing at Lyons; and even the cotton-trade was not yet in a difficult position, for the stock in bond on the 30th of September was still 707 tons against 1278 tons at the same date last year, without counting the quantity in private hands. The home sugar-makers, though rather less active than in 1860, had the same number of factories open, and had done a fair business during the season. The agricultural interest alone had really suffered from the general deficiency of the harvest, but even there certain compensations existed, for the wine crop, though small, is of excellent quality, and in certain districts the hay and bean crops have been remarkably good. Furthermore, the evil effects of the short-coming in the production of wheat were already somewhat counteracted, as far as the nation at large was concerned, by the fall in the price of corn, which already began to manifest itself at the end of September. The Paris retail trade was bad, but so it has been for years past; it constituted no new feature in the general position.

As this examination of the commercial position of the country, in the ordinary sense of the term, showed no signs of either distress or overtrading, the causes of the diminution of bullion, which had brought about such sudden and violent action on the part of the Bank, were to be looked for elsewhere.

They were not very difficult to find. They existed partly in certain special monetary wants which renew themselves regularly every autumn in France, partly in the known necessity for buying some 12,000,000l. or 15,000,000l. of foreign corn, and partly in the fact that several heavy calls came due from September to November.

But all these circumstances were known beforehand, if not to the general public, at all events to the directors of the Bank, especially as due notice of a drain of money had already been given by the table of the movement of bullion in and out of France. The fact was patent, only nobody paid any attention to it till rather too late. From 1848 to 1860 the balance of the movement of the precious metals had been, on every successive year, without exception, in favour of France: the total excess of importation over exportation amounted, for the whole thirteen years, to 95,456,000l. But in 1861, for the first time in that long period, the balance has turned the other way; during the first nine months of this year the exportation of gold and silver has surpassed the importation by 1,473,000l.

Every autumn a reduction of the cash in hand takes place at the Bank of France. The history of previous years brings out the fact that, from some cause hitherto unexplained, circumstances regularly produce themselves which lower the stock of bullion from September to November, and sometimes to January. According to a detailed calculation published in the Journal des Economistes for October, which shows how the same results occur year after year in varying proportions, the reduction of the stock of bullion, from September to October alone, on the fourteen years from 1848 to 1861, has averaged 1,480,000l. The bills held by the Bank have simultaneously risen during the same period by an average of 1,240,000l., and the circulation of notes by 560,000l. This movement has been especially marked during the last five years in consequence of the general development of trade. From 1857 to 1860 the exact fall in the cash balance from September to November has been as follows:

So that, whether the example be chosen in a year of difficulty like 1857, or in a year of abundance of money, like 1859, the difference produced is substantially the same; the balance always falls from 2,000,000l. to 4,000,000l. between September and November. And this fall is totally irrespective of the rate of discount, which was 7 per cent. in October, 1857 (10 per cent. in November), 3 per cent. in 1858, 3 per cent. in 1859, and 4 per cent. in 1860. The price of Rentes generally rises 2 or 3 per cent. at the same period, because of the approach of the dividend.

A diminution of bullion, beginning in September, was therefore to be expected by the Bank, and as its occurrence in previous ordinary years had produced no rise of discount, its arrival this year, in normal proportions, would have created no sufficient reason for the sudden action of the 26th of September.

As the Bank of France only publishes its balance-sheets once a month, it was not till the 10th of October that the public could judge how far the habitual autumnal reduction had been exceeded. When the account appeared it showed a fall of bullion of 3,241,000l.; the stock had gone

down in a month from 15,432,000l. to 12,191,0007.: the notes in circulation had increased by 370,000l., while the amount of bills in hand had gone up 2,930,000%.

The reduction of 3,241,000l. since September, being larger than the ordinary average diminution during the same period, it was evident that special causes were taking money away. If the mean fall in previous years be taken at 2,000,000, these special causes had absorbed the other 1,241,000l. It is worth remarking that this sum closely corresponds with the net amount of bullion exported in the year.

There are no means of fixing the proportion of this excess which was absorbed by the purchase of corn; it is estimated at all sorts of figures, some of which even largely exceed the total of the excess itself. All that can be said is, that part of it had gone for food at an earlier date than was expected, because, for the first time, considerable quantities of wheat had been bought in England and Germany for immediate delivery, instead of waiting, as before, for supplies from more distant markets, and that the remainder had served to pay calls on foreign undertakings, especially on the Italian loan, of which about a third (8,000,000l.) was subscribed in France.

In the face of the evident call on the resources of the country, the Bank took special and extraordinary measures. It raised the rate to 6 per cent., and negotiated the power of drawing on London for 2,000,000l. at three months, half the bills to be from Messrs. Rothschild, of Paris, on their London house, and the other half from the firms of Messrs. Hottinguer, Pillet-Will, Fould, Mallet, and Durand, on Messrs. Baring. As the bills were to be renewable at the option of the Bank, the duration of the advance was equivalent to six months. Part of these bills (400,000l. it is said) were negotiated in October. The simple an nouncement of the arrangement lowered the exchange on London: it may, indeed, be supposed that one of the objects of the Bank was to counteract the rise of exchange with England, which was expected to result from the commencement of operation of the treaty of commerce, and which would have produced the exportation of gold thither. Whether they will also be used to buy gold for Paris remains to be seen.

This operation has been much attacked in France, on the ground that its effects can only be temporary and illusory, and that though, if between ordinary traders it would have been a fair commercial transaction, a national institution ought never to resort to the credit of private bankers unless no other means of safety exist.

As soon as this negotiation was completed, another somewhat similar one was announced. It was reported that, with the aid of Messrs. Rothschild, the Bank of France was to obtain an advance of 2,250,0002 (15,000,000 thalers) from the Bank of Prussia. This operation, which is either abandoned or suspended, for the assigned reason that the Bank of Prussia can only receive bills at less than ninety days, would have had an appearance of reason for a peculiar motive. It is notorious that, in order to keep the Russian exchanges with Western Europe at a favourable rate, the St. Petersburg government maintains, at its own cost, an artificial circulation of bills on certain markets. These bills are principally drawn from Berlin on Paris, and their average amount is estimated at about 2,400,000l. At a moment, therefore, when France is buying corn from Russia, it would not be unnatural to call on the Russian agents